Carson Street Clothiers: Welcome Visitors

"Carson Street Clothiers" is a series — written by former lawyers, sometime style bloggers, and Carson Street co-owners Matt Breen and Brian Trunzo — about opening a new men's-wear store in NYC. "Vistors Welcome" the final part in the series. Check out the archives for the rest of the story.

We're open. Like, really open. For business. We're selling clothes. To people. We're making relationships. For over two weeks now. Crazy, right? It seems like only yesterday that we began writing this series for Esquire. The dust has hardly settled from construction, and the smell of wood sealant is fresh in our nostrils. But we're open. And we couldn't be any happier.

Over the last four months of our sartorial pregnancy, we did all we could to prepare for our launch: Lamaze classes in the form of point-of-sale systems training; merchandising the racks as if we were turning the den into a bedroom; and taking our multi-vitamins (read: coffee). Those sorts of things. But nothing could have prepared us fully for what was about to go down. From the all-nighters we pulled to clear out (literally) tons of rubbish to merchandising racks for press photo shoots scheduled the following day to delivery delays on store collateral such as hangers and product tags, it's been one hell of a few weeks.

But it all came together — so quickly that we were astonished to find that our build finished more or less on schedule. And if it weren't for the scattered delivery schedule of our merchandise, we probably could have been open much sooner. Sure, there would have been a large outstanding punch list of construction requirements at launch, but rumor has it that the Barclays Center was permitted by the Department of Buildings to open for Jay-Z with a punch list about 1,400 items long.

It took a long time for us to get over the fact that nothing will be perfect. In our last article, we wrote in anticipation of staining the floors. We did that. Twice. One of the perils of hitting the floors before the punch list is complete is that afterwards, it is almost impossible to protect from the daily wear and tear of on-site construction, no matter how minuscule such construction may seem. So, we hit the floors again, two nights before our industry and press party. And guess what? By the time our friends and family made their way to Mister H at the Mondrian Hotel for our after-party reception, the floors had taken another beating. So much so that we should probably hit them once more. C'est la vie.

The tie wall, up close

Friends and family celebrations are always full of joy and laudations, but when they go down the night before you open a business, things can slip through the cracks. Like labels. You know, the ones with prices on them? While partying at Mister H the night before we opened, we realized about half the items on the floor (not to mention the entire inventory in our basement) were without labels. So, at around half-past midnight, we rounded the troops and, half-inebriated, walked our way back to the shop and had a party of our own. A label party. Around 6:00 a.m., around the time our friends and family were leaving various diners and late-night grub spots, we were leaving the shop for however many few hours of sleep we could grab before we opened the doors for business about five hours later.

And when the baby was finally birthed, all of our family, friends, neighbors, and supporters stopped by to give their warmest regards. To our delight, everyone had nice things to say! Really nice things to say. So much so that we struggled to keep up — the volume was just too great. But in a good way; it seemed as if all of SoHo popped in during our opening weekend. And for that, we thank you, specifically those of you who waited over a half-hour in line for a dressing room. You truly are rock stars.

Shirts, jeans, and more spring essentials

From here begins the long journey of caring for our newborn (because making sure your baby survives long enough to reach adolescence accounts for about half of parenthood anyways, right?). As rookie parents, we are aware that we still have a ton to learn, but we welcome the challenge. And we hope that our creation grows into a respectable young lad who always remembers to remove his cap in the presence of a lady, especially one who is hanging out in our lounge while her significant other tries on blazer after blazer (we're sorry if we kept you waiting).

But unlike parents, we find ourselves in a unique position to use our creation as a mechanism to educate others. And this has been one of the most rewarding aspects of the last few weeks. Sipping on some brews while discussing the importance of high armholes with customers, watching the Big East Tourney while explaining the symbolism of functioning buttons, and recounting brands' individual histories for customers while setting up a made-to-measure consultation — this is where we find great joy. It's about the people. And, lucky for us, we have been surrounded by great ones.

So come on by. We're open from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sundays. Introduce yourself, ask questions, boss us around — but above all, enjoy yourself. We'll be here, as we always are, because you never know when the baby's going to wake up in the middle of the night, bawling his eyes out.

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